PP-Vox's war against the memory laws (but with internal divisions)

BarcelonaWhen the regional pacts between the People's Party (PP) and Vox were forged, a key point for the far right was the dismantling of the democratic memory laws that scrutinize the Franco regime. This Tuesday have been the Balearic Islands The region that has taken the final step to repeal the memory law approved by the previous left-wing government and has promised to honor the victims of the Republican bombings to appease Vox. However, this is not an isolated case. Extremadura has also repealed it and promoted a "law of concord," as have Aragon, the Valencian Community, and Cantabria. However, the issue divides the PP.

While the offensive against historical memory spreads, an internal clash is evident. The PP lacks a clear line on these laws. Mariano Rajoy himself promised to repeal José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero's law, but failed to do so. Currently, while five PP regions wage war against historical memory due to pressure from Vox, Andalusia, the most populous in the state, has refused to remove even a comma from the current law in force, as has La Rioja—which applies it in its own way, but has not repealed it. The difference between these regions and the rest is that there is an absolute popular majority.

In the Andalusian case, it is a baron, Juanma Moreno Bonilla, noted for his markedly centrist attitude, has not wanted to make noise in this area: the most reluctant to make pacts with Vox - which has asked for his resignation for a public health scandal– and who has publicly defended future agreements with Junts. A different profile from the Valencian president, Carlos Mazón, who is the first regional president to reach an agreement with Vox, spoiling the state leadership's stealth strategy, and one of the most enthusiastic about the repeal of the regional memory law, although the first to do so was Jorge Azcón's Aragón. The Madrid president, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, has also refused to promote any law of concord, an initiative that the PP only promotes if it depends on Vox.

Goteo

If the PP has complied with the agreement with the far right in the Balearic Islands in exchange for the approval of the 2025 budget, something similar has happened in Extremadura. Ten days ago, the PP and Vox also repealed the law and approved the so-called "law of concord." It was the last pending concession that, for now, María Guardiola's government had with its former partners on the far right, who in return offered the support of their five deputies to approve a tax cut after the PP was unable to pass the 2025 budget and had to extend the previous year's.

It was an issue that the president of Extremadura had tried to delay, aware of the social rejection generated by the repeal of this law in a community where an estimated 14,000 people disappeared during the Civil War and the Franco regime. In fact, the repeal of the law coincided with the same day that human remains appeared in a mine in Cáceres, where the Provincial Council and the University of Extremadura have been searching for the remains of victims of Franco's regime for three years. Therefore, when the agreement between the PP and Vox collapsed in the summer of 2024, Guardiola asserted that the repeal of the law was not on the table because it was not a "priority." Parliamentary weakness forced Guardiola to approve a law that bears little resemblance to the previous one, as the text doesn't even refer to the Franco dictatorship. It extends the time frame from 1931 to the present and includes victims of terrorism, although Extremadura has a specific law for this area. Furthermore, the teaching of historical memory is removed from the classroom, and glorification of Franco's regime is not prosecuted either.

The first autonomous community to abolish the historical memory law, however, was Aragon. On February 15th of last year, the plenary session of the Aragon Parliament repealed the first law passed by the left-wing government during the previous term. "Today, we begin to recognize all victims, without distinction," said Ana Marín, the PP spokesperson in the chamber, emphasizing that victims of terrorism should also be included. "Thanks to you, Franco is more alive in the debate than 30 years ago," added Santiago Morón, the spokesperson for Vox, accusing the left of "exhuming" the dictator. The repeal was announced on November 20th, 2023, the anniversary of the deaths of Franco and José Antonio Primo de Rivera, founder of the Falange, which the opposition interpreted as a provocation.

The Valencian Community later joined in, with an approach that equated victims of Franco's regime with those of the Republic, using a concept of "political violence" to include ETA and Islamist terrorism, but not the Spanish Blavero against Catalanism. Cantabria has also followed in the footsteps of these regions and repealed the law passed by the chamber in 2022, when the coalition of regionalists and socialists governed. Castile and León reversed itself, although it had agreed on a law of "concord" with Vox. It reversed itself after the regional executives' mess. All of this has meant the elimination of memory routes in the regions and the equating of the Republic with dictatorship, a word that has disappeared from most texts.

Pending the Constitutional Court's decision

The Spanish government has not sat idly by and has appealed to the Constitutional Court against all the repeals of the regional memory laws, and the high court has immediately halted them. The Ministry of Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory already announced that it would appeal these new laws if they violated the 2022 Democratic Memory Law and requested its precautionary suspension, using the Spanish government's prerogative to suspend regional laws pending a final ruling from the Constitutional Court. The appeal alleged that several articles of the law could violate Articles 10 and 15 of the Spanish Constitution, related to the fundamental rights and dignity of victims.

In the Valencian Community, the Constitutional Court has suspended the validity of several articles that were previously appealed by the Spanish government, mainly because they entail restricting the rights of victims and actions aimed at their protection, reparation, and guarantees of non-repetition. In Aragon, after the five-month deadline, the repeal was approved because the full Constitutional Court (TC) agreed to extend it beyond the deadline. This means that the repealing law has since regained force and will continue to be implemented until the TC issues a final ruling on the matter. In Cantabria, however, it has been agreed to keep the law that repealed the historical memory law suspended pending a ruling, while in Extremadura, the Spanish government has not yet been able to file an appeal.